One of the most intriguing aspects of the Italian society is its ability to produce unbearable arrangements and to treat them as something normal.

Comparing the aftermaths of two similar events, one in US and other in Italy, one could easily see that the Italian rule of law is something quite particular…

Let’s go for the facts:

In 1981, John Hinkley Jr.shot twice Ronald Reagan, then the US president. Hinckley Jr. was prosecuted, but as declared legally insane, he did not go to the prison. Nevertheless, since then he is locked inside an psychiatric hospital, with no parole, no mercy.

In 1977, leftist terrorists kidnapped Aldo Moro, a former Italian prime minister, and then a top politician. After 55 days, Aldo Moro was killed with 10 rounds, while tied with ropes and covered with a blanket. The killer was Mario Moretti, who was later arrested and condemned to six life sentences. But after 15 years behind bars, he was paroled and freed in 1998. Now he works as an state employee, managing an IT lab at the Lombardy region.

Stating things even more clearly, Mario Moretti:

Cowardly killed a human being;

Attempted to destroy Italian democracy, targeting to transform Italy into a communist country;

Attacked the Italian state and the Italian people, not only a politician;

Was condemned to six life sentences;

Now works for the Italian government, receiving money from the same entity he tried to destroy.

At the same time, almost every city in Italy has a park, a street or a building called Aldo Moro. In Italy, it seems to be easier to honor Aldo Moro’s memory with a fancy inauguration than to make justice prevails. The arrangement is this: everybody feigns a normal life while the terrorist is rewarded.

Italy is famous for its ruins, castles and remains of societies which existed here centuries ago. Much more than that, Italy, besides Greece, is the birthplace of the Western civilization. Although today’s Italy is truly ridiculous, there is a fantastic heritage. So, what happened to this country?

Traveling throughout the past, one can find numerous Italians who shaped the world as we know it: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Alessandro Volta, Dante Alighieri, Vivaldi, Verdi, Marco Polo, Columbus, Machiaveli… The list could continue, but the question remains: where are their partners in the modern Italy? Certainly Enrico Fermi, Toscanini, Gramsci, Fellini… But anyone would concede that Italy has lost its wisdom somewhere in the past.

More than that, what is the “greatest” Italian contribution to the world, recently? It is hard to admit, but that was the Fascism. Benito Mussolini created one of the three political beasts which hammered humanity during last century. Fascism, besides Nazism and Communism, was a plague which ruined so many lives and whose harmful affects remained during generations.

Nevertheless, prior to continue, I have to pay a tribute to the numerous Italians who strongly resisted to the Fascism, some of them even paying the highest price, their own lives. But their tremendous efforts could not change History: Fascism was an Italian invention, unfortunately.

And the most scaring aspect of Fascism in Italy is that the monster is still alive. I mean, from one side, Italy is not ashamed of Fascism as it should be (just compare to current Germany’s attitude towards Nazism). And from other side, there are Italian politicians who are openly fascists while the Italian people pretend they are not. Umberto Bossi, Roberto Maroni and Lega Nord, for instance, what are their beliefs?

Segregation, based on race: gypsies registered and classified (like Jewish people under Nazis)

There is always a scapegoat for Italian failures: immigrants (again a Nazi behaviour)

Recollection of some ancient symbol in order to grab some credibility: chivalric symbols (Mussolini used fasces)

Umberto Bossi and a dearest friend

While I see Italian past, and wonder about Italy’s future, I simply can not stop asking. How much time Italy will have to suffer? Where are the modern partisans who will fight these new fascists?